In the past, numerous rocket ejection and recovery systems have been proposed. Some of these prior systems, while advancing the art to some degree, still possessed serious disadvantages, including the ejection of wadding, asbestos particles and like deliterious substances into the environment. Among these prior art proposals are Beattie who in U.S. Pat. No. 2,442,528 proposed a rocket equipped with a parachute assembly fastened by connecting the shroud lines to a central anchor protected from the hot combustion gases by a "felt" washer, all of which was ejected from the rocket into the atmosphere during flight. Another, Estes et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,302 taught the use of special wadding to prevent the gases created by the pyrotechnic motor from burning the ejection system. Brown et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,145 disclosed the use of perforated baffles separated by a cylindrical tube and positioned beneath the recovery system to prevent the burning of the recovery system by hot gases and incandescent particles.
Generally speaking, model rocket recovery systems in use today employ a parachute fastened to the rocket housing and is deployed through the use of a pyrotechnic charge which ejects not only the parachute but the protective wadding into the environment and inevitably leads to the recovery of less than the entire rocket assembly.